British Administration System, Pillars and Objective

British Administration System

Read all about British Administration System. The first war of independence, the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, shocked the British government. Political instability, social injustice, and economic exploitation all contributed to the 1857 uprising. The British kings were forced to abandon their conquering and annexation policies in favor of a circumspect and deliberate policy of alliance and cooperation. Several changes were made as a result of the Act of 1858. It guaranteed the local princes their honor, respect, and rights. In this article students will find all about British Administration System for UPSC Exam.

British administration System Three Pillars

The three Pillars of the British Administration System in India are the Civil Service, the Army, and the Police.

1. Civil Service

Lord Cornwallis was the one who created the Civil Services. Warren and Clive Hastings tried to stop their corruption, but they were only partially successful. When Cornwallis arrived in India as Governor-General in 1786, he was keen to clean up the government but soon realized that the Company’s employees would not perform their duties honestly and effectively if they were not paid well.

He, therefore, applied tight enforcement to the laws prohibiting private trade and the receipt of gifts and bribes by authorities. He also increased the wages of the Company’s employees at the same time. Lord Wellesley founded the College of Fort William in Calcutta in 1800 to provide young recruits to the Civil Service with an education.

The Company’s directors disapproved of his actions and established their own East Indian College at Haileybury in England in 1806 to take its place. The Charter Act of 1853 mandated that all Civil Service recruits would be chosen through a competitive process. Since Cornwallis’ time, the severe and total exclusion of Indians from the Indian Civil Service has been a distinctive aspect of it. Other facets of the government, including the military, police, judicial system, and engineers, were also subject to this program.

Read More: Civil Service under British Administration

2. Army

The army served as the second crucial tenet of the British government in India. It served as the primary tool for extending and defending the British Empire in Asia and Africa. It was the means by which the Indian powers were subdued. It protected the British Empire in India from foreign adversaries.

However, since Cornwallis’ time, all of its officers have been British. The army was run fully by British authorities as a counterbalance, and a fixed number of British soldiers were kept on hand to keep the Indian soldiers under check.

The Company’s army needed less cavalry as warfare technology advanced after the 1820s. This is due to the fact that the British Empire was engaged in combat with soldiers using muskets and rifles in Burma, Afghanistan, and Egypt. Matchlock, an early style of a gun in which the powder was lit by a match, is a heavy weapon used by infantry soldiers.

3. Police

The police, another institution founded by Cornwallis, served as the third pillar of British power. He established a permanent police force to uphold peace and order and removed the zamindars of their policing duties. In this way, he modified the traditional thanas system from ancient India. Cornwallis built a system of Indian-led circles called thanas called darogas. Later, the position of District Superintendent of Police was established to oversee the local police force.

4. Judicial Organization

Through the establishment of a hierarchy of civil and criminal courts, the British set the groundwork for a new system of delivering justice. Though given a start by Warren Hastings, the system was stabilized by Cornwallis in 1793. In each district was established a Diwani Adalat, or civil court, presided over by the District Judge who belonged to the Civil Service.

Cornwallis thus separated the post of the Civil Judge and the Collector. To deal with criminal cases, Cornwallis divided the Presidency of Bengal into four division, in each of which a Court of Circuit presided over by the civil servants was established.

High Courts were founded in 1865 to take the place of the Sadar Courts of Diwani and Nizamat in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. The Governor-General was given complete legislative authority by the Charter Act of 1833. A Law Commission led by Lord Macaulay was established by the government in 1833 to codify Indian laws.

British Administration System Objective

The objective of these three pillars was to serve two primary purposes of the British Empire:

• Preservation of Law and Order: British Manufacturers and Merchants were able to market their products throughout India because to the preservation of Law and Order.
• The continuation of British dominance in the Indian subcontinent: Because they were foreigners, the Britishers depended on force because they could not acquire the respect of the locals.

British Administration System Rule of Law

The contemporary idea of the rule of law was first introduced by the British. A person’s personal liberty was in certain ways guaranteed by the rule of law. Historically, tradition and custom has generally bound the kings of India.

On the other hand, under British rule, administration was largely conducted in accordance with the laws as they were interpreted by the courts, despite the fact that the laws themselves were frequently flawed, were made autocratically by the foreign rulers rather than by the people, and gave the police and civil servants significant power.

British Administration System before Law

Under British rule, the equality before the law principle served as the cornerstone of the Indian legal system. This implied that all people were treated equally before the law. Everyone was subject to the same laws, regardless of caste, religion, or class.

However, this wonderful legal idea of equality before the law has one limitation. The courts and laws of the Europeans and their descendants were distinct. Only European judges could hear their criminal trials.

In actuality, a different kind of legal inequity developed. As court costs, attorneys’ fees, and witness expenses had to be covered, justice became exceedingly expensive. Courts were frequently located in far-off towns. Lawsuits took a long time to resolve. The pre-British justice system, in comparison, was comparatively informal, quick, and affordable.

British Administration System UPSC

During its rule from 1858 to 1935, the British government introduced reforms in the form of the Indian Council Acts of 1861 and 1892, the Morley Minto Reforms of 1909, the Montague Chelmsford Reforms of 1919, and the Government of India Act of 1935.

The Public Service Commission, which operates independently to select public employees, decentralized local self-government units, the District Collector office, and other notable achievements of the British administration have been incorporated into our current system of government. For the UPSC Exam, this article contains all the information you need.

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